Execution in Autumn is a Taiwanese cinematic gem that deserves to be better known (Film review)

 

Not all the screenings at this year's Hong Kong 

International Film Festival were sold out ones

 

Execution in Autumn (Taiwan, 1972)

- Part of the Hong Kong International Film Festival's Chinese-language Restored Classics program

- Li Hsing, director

- Starring: Ou Wei, Tang Pao Yun, Ko Hsiang Ting, Fu Pi Hui

 

The way the story of Taiwanese cinema is often told, the sense one gets is that it only got serious, and seriously good, after the likes of Edward Yang, Hou Hsiao Hsien and Ang Lee came onto the scene.  So I went into the screening of Execution in Autumn, a film made even before Taiwanese screen sweetheart Brigitte Lin Ching Hsia made her film debut, with not the highest of expectations -- even though I did know that it had won several Golden Horse awards (including for Best Feature Film, Best Director and Best Lead Actor).

After having viewed this 1972 work though, I definitely would be up for checking out more movies directed by Li Hsing (who actually has four Golden Horse Best Director awards to his name and also was presented with the the Lifetime Achievement award in 1995).  Set in Han dynasty (206 BC-220 AD) China, Execution in Autumn is a thoughtful and moving social commentary about how loving elders are not always right -- and can end up damning their descendants when they overly privilege them at the expense of others.  And although this is not apparent for a good part of its running length, this period drama also turns out to be a touching love story and an affecting tale of redemption that left me in awe of how well made it was.

 

The film begins by informing its audience that autumn was the traditional time decreed for executions in ancient China and we soon find out that its main character, Pei Gang (played by Ou Wei), has been sentenced to death for the murder of a woman who had claimed to be pregnant with his child and two men involved in the attempt to blackmail him on this matter.  The last male of an illustrious family's line, he might have got away with it -- thanks to the family's matriach and his grandmother (Fu Bi Hui) bribing one of the government officials at his trial -- but Pei Gang's absolute lack of repentance gets the judge deciding he needed to be severely punished.    

 

Determined to perpetuate the family bloodline, Pei Gang's grandmother sets about getting a devoted ward of the family, Lian’er (Tang Pao Yun), into the prison to sleep with him.  This involves the assistance of the prison warden (Ko Hsiang Tin) who, as he observes the interactions between Pei Gang and his grandmother, begins to see his deceased son in his combustible prisoner who actually learns more from hard knocks than pampering -- and, against the odds, actually grows as a man in prison even as his time on earth nears premature completion. 

 

One of the things I really like about Execution in Autumn is how, by the end of it, you come to see even its most flawed characters as being far more human than one dimensionally bad.  On a related note: this work also is really good in revealing layers to each of the principal and even supporting characters.  Thus it is that Pei Gang comes across as a man who, for all of his sins, is deserving of love; Lian' er is shown to be no mere sacrificing wallflower (like one might expect of characters like hers in tales of old); the grandmother to not just be an arrogant aristocrat overly used to getting her way; and the prison warden to possess great empathy along with ethical standards.        

 

My rating for this film: 9.0